Raiden's Injuries

Astoria didn't bother teasing the boy any longer and instead started to talk business.

"How far did you get with the soul cultivation technique I gave you?" With some authority in her tone, Astoria asked, masquerading herself as if she had already comprehended the soul cultivation technique and started to cultivate it.

Children of fate like Raiden were supposed to have heaven-defying comprehension and cultivation talents, right? Maybe he did it in just a night; if so, he could help Astoria.

Astoria would never mention this, as she had an image to keep, but it was still a good plan.

Raiden disappointed her.

Blushing even more, Raiden replied, "I was too tired from last night, big sister. I had only read the instructions before going to sleep. I didn't even get a chance to start meditating, so I simply went right to sleep, still in the lotus position. My legs are still sore from that, too."

Hearing Raiden's poor phrasing, it was almost like a black line appeared on Astoria's forehead.

Sadly, she wasn't a physical being, and her forehead didn't have any veins to bulge out. Thankfully, her facial expression portrayed her emotions very well, and so, without warning, she sent the boy tumbling out of the hut as a punishment.

Using her Soul Essence in a manner like wind, Astoria sent Raiden rolling up the hill that his hut sat at the bottom of. Gravity existed in this world, though, so he eventually came rolling back down, only to bang his head on the hut, causing it to shake.

"Watch your phrasing, boy." Floating at the hut to see his pain, Astoria snorted angrily as she saw Raiden holding his head in pain, "But, at least you're tough. You gotta be if you're going to be this dumb."

Raiden had no words for his big sister's antics. He simply glared at her, tears glistening in his eyes.

'I'll get you back for this, you witch! Just wait!'

Unaware of Raiden's rebellious thoughts, Astoria continued to talk business.

"It's fine if you didn't comprehend the soul cultivation technique in just one night. It's extremely complicated and intricate. Just be diligent in your studies during the night. During the day, we'll temper your body." As she floated back into the hut, Astoria said, beckoning the tearing Raiden to follow.

Teary-eyed but still determined, the boy followed.

Once back in the hut, Astoria floated above the chair as if she were sitting and began to speak aloud about her plans for Raiden.

"Since you no longer have a spiritual root, Qi Refinement has to be on hold for now. But that doesn't mean the other two cultivation paths will be ignored in the meantime. Since you're going to help avenge me, you need to be strong—and not strong by the Black Lotus Domain's standard, but by my home domain, the Heavenly Martial Domain."

"Geniuses, there aren't the average trash that you'd find here. In fact, this Young Master Chu you're 'archenemies' with probably isn't even fit enough to hold the shoes of the most average genius there. As such, whatever limits or goals you have in mind for yourself in your cultivation journey, toss them away. They're trash."

"Beginning from now, you're on a different path, different trajectory from before. Before, you were simply a house cat, but now you're a lion cub. Still a baby without enough strength to even kill a child, but with time, you'll become a true lion, the king of the forest!" Astoria was spitting our flavorful words left and right in order to rile up Raiden's downcasted soul. But truthfully, in her mind, deep down, she believed everything she said.

Even if Raiden was a complete piece of rotting wood with any potential, Astoria had faith in both her capabilities as an author and with Rictoli's inheritance to transform him into a divine tree should she have enough time and luck.

The only thing she had no faith in was whether or not Raiden had the willpower to stand up again. 

Sure, he could look cheerful and dandy right now, but that wasn't enough in Astoria's mind.

Raiden was crippled, had his clan exterminated, and was chased around like a dog for months, only to be bullied and harassed by mortal boys who weren't fit enough to be his horse keepers just a few months ago.

Going from heaven to hell in such a short amount of time would damage enough the most hardened souls. 

So, while Astoria had confidence in herself, Raiden was the wild card.

No matter how good a horse rider is, what can you do if your horse just wants to lie down and die?

Mission one in her mind wasn't make sure Raiden had enough stepping stones around him, or whether or not he could fight, it was to ensure that Raiden never despaired so hard that he gave up.

What better way to accomplish mission number one than a flavorful and fluff-filled speech to cheer the boy up?

Thankfully, her plan worked. 

Once Raiden heard Astoria's speech, a bright smile appeared on his face, and the tears threatening to roll down his cheeks receded. 

Now, more motivated than ever, Raiden swore that he wouldn't let his ghostly big sister down.

—

It had been five days since Astoria's speech, and both Raiden and Astoria had been progressing nicely.

Ever since the village boy Lan Tie was embarrassed by the ghostly Astoria, they had completely disappeared from Raiden's life.

Raiden had no idea why this happened. Before Astoria was in this world, Raiden would be bothered every few hours.

A rock would get thrown through his window. His well would be peed in. Children would yell outside his hut to wake him up.

Life was not peaceful for Raiden in this village.

So, for the xenophobic farmers to leave Raiden alone for almost a week, something had to be afoot.

But Astoria knew not to look a gift horse in the mouth. Even if they had a plan, it wouldn't matter in the end. Her strength was enough protection in this place.

So, she forgot about that minor character's existence and put Raiden through hellish training during this rare free time.

Raiden slept less, did physical training to temper his body until he couldn't move anymore, and then while he recovered physically he would study the Divine Resonance of the Mirror Realm scroll.

Astoria ended up making a minor connection with the Mirror Realm on their third day of training.

Now, she could absorb the pure and illusive Soul Essence from the Mirror Realm and replace Rictoli's mundane Soul Essenence with it.

She had read the blueprint and started to build her tower, but her cultivation base had only reached the Nascent Soul Realm this morning. 

The rest of the Soul Essence would need further replacement and optimization.

Astoria was taking wide strides in her cultivation journey, but Raiden was the opposite.

Even though she did have all the resources to succeed and opened up her upper dantian in one shot, so did Raiden.

She wasn't stingy with Soul Essence and poured in more than enough in his closed upper dantian in an attempt to facilitate its opening, but it didn't work.

Without an upper dantian to store it, the Soul Essence Astoria gave him just dissipated back into the world, wasted.

She could not open up his upper dantian at all.

Nothing worked.

As for why? Astoria wasn't sure at all.

Moreover, not only his Soul Cultivation but even his Body Tempering journey has fully halted.

Since Raiden's body was too weak after having his cultivation base destroyed and his spiritual roots excavated by ruthless means, he couldn't start cultivating his body directly.

Rictoli majored in the Body Tempering path, and as his successor, Astoria had a large amount of Body Tempering techniques. But all of the good ones had extremely high starting requirements. 

Whether it be a high base physical strength that only top-tier physical geniuses would have or a special physique, all of Astoria's best body-tempering techniques were too good for Raiden.

It was funny. Usually, cultivators suffered the opposite fate, having good talent but being stuck with horrible techniques, but Raiden had the reverse.

He was sleeping on a pile of gold in a boring world. Irony at its finest.

That was why Astoria hadn't taught him anything yet.

If she taught him any of them, his physical body would simply collapse under the immense requirements and tasks that these high leveled techniques had, destroying any future he had in the path.

She wasn't dumb and wouldn't do that, so she opted to start healing his body before training it.

The two of them would explore the nearby forests and pick various healthy herbs that possessed high amounts of vital energy, like ginsengs and blood lotuses, then plant them in the immortal ring and repeat.

Once they fully matured, she would give them to Raiden to heal his hidden injuries from the spiritual root excavation.

Raiden also did a lot of mortal physical training like push ups and full body routines. They weren't the end all be all of his training, but without anything to do, it was enough.

Sadly, Raiden's starting point was far behind the normal one, and even with almost a week of exercise and top-tier medicine of training, he had only just reached the average strength that a mortal boy his age would have.

It was still extremely far away from what he needed to cultivate Rictoli's personal Body Tempering manual, but it was a good start.

Today, Astoria was planning on giving Raiden a basic Body Tempering manual to allow him to build a small foundation that would help cultivate other much more advanced and powerful manuals in the future, but something, or rather someone, stopped them.

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